Saint-Andre satisfied with fair fight in Melbourne

France may not have troubled the scorers in Melbourne on Saturday but head coach Philippe Saint-Andre was satisfied with an improved display from the previous weekend.

Les Bleus were beaten 50-23 in their series-opening clash with Australia at the Suncorp Stadium last weekend - two late French tries salvaged a more respectable scoreline.

The repeat fixture saw the Wallabies seal the series with a low-key 6-0 win but Saint-Andre is content to head into next weekend's finale safe in the knowledge his side is on an upward curve.

"At least it was a real game of rugby," he said. "We were not a sparring partner.

"We should have had a half time lead of seven or ten points. We had an opportunity to score and missed two penalties. In the second half, Australia started very well and our discipline fell a bit. But the defence was very efficient.

"We were in far better rhythm of the match for 80 minutes. We had a turn-about individually and collectively. We took on the Australians for 80 minutes.

"In the last 15 minutes, even with 14 players against 15 [when Bernard Le Roux was sin-binned] we had opportunities to win. We have more work to do but against last week there was an enormous amount of progress and satisfaction.

England Under-20s may have agonisingly missed out on a third straight World Rugby U20 Championship title on Saturday but head coach Jon Callard is adamant that fans are witnessing the next generation of international superstars.